"Enhanced" is how CMS described the method it will use to analyze the quality performance leg of the merit-based incentive program (MIPS).
The new system comes with a tongue-twisting name: The eligibility measure applicability (EMA) process. EMA will replace the measure applicability validation (MAV) process that was used to check clinicians' quality reporting under the old physician quality reporting system (PQRS).
According to the
2017 MIPS quality performance category fact sheet, EMA will kick in when a MIPS-eligible clinician reports fewer than six quality measures or six measures but no outcomes measure or high-priority measures. As was the case with MAV, CMS will use EMA to determine whether the clinician who falls short of the required number and mix of measures could have reported additional measures:
If CMS finds that there are no applicable measures for the clinician, they won’t be held accountable for not submitting those measures. If CMS discovers that additional clinically related measures could have been submitted and were not, it will impact the quality performance category final score.
However, clinicians who opted to test the waters of MIPS this year by submitting one quality measure need not worry -- provided the measure is successfully reported.
However, in this first year, under the Pick Your Pace option, submission of only one measure will assure that clinicians do not receive a negative payment adjustment.